Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T18:40:33.323Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Non-Micropipe Dislocations in 4H-SiC Devices: Electrical Properties and Device Technology Implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

P. G. Neudeck ,
W. Huang ,
M. Dudley  and
C. Fazi
P. G. Neudeck
Affiliation:
NASA Lewis Research Center, M.S. 77-1, 21000 Brookpark Rd., Cleveland, OH 44135
W. Huang
Affiliation:
Dept. of Materials Science & Engineering, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY 11794
M. Dudley
Affiliation:
Dept. of Materials Science & Engineering, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY 11794
C. Fazi
Affiliation:
U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, MD 20783
Get access

Abstract

It is well-known that SiC wafer quality deficiencies are delaying the realization of outstandingly superior 4H-SiC power electronics. While efforts to date have centered on eradicating micropipes (i.e., hollow core super-screw dislocations with Burgers vectors > 2c), 4H-SiC wafers and epilayers also contain elementary screw dislocations (i.e., Burgers vector = lc with no hollow core) in densities on the order of thousands per cm 2, nearly 100-fold micropipe densities. While not nearly as detrimental to SiC device performance as micropipes, it has been previously shown that diodes containing elementary screw dislocations exhibit a 5% to 35% reduction in breakdown voltage, higher pre-breakdown reverse leakage current, softer reverse breakdown I-V knee, and concentrated microplasmic breakdown current filaments when measured under DC testing conditions. This paper details the impact of elementary screw dislocations on the experimentally observed reverse-breakdown pulse-failure characteristics of low-voltage (< 250 V) small-area (< 5 × 10-4 cm2) 4H-SiC p+n diodes. The presence of elementary screw dislocations did not significantly affect the failure properties of these diodes when subjected to non-adiabatic breakdown-bias pulsewidths ranging from 0.1 μs to 20 μs in duration. Diodes with and without elementary screw dislocations exhibited positive temperature coefficient of breakdown voltage and high junction failure power densities well above the failure power densities exhibited by highly reliable silicon power rectifiers. This preliminary result, based on measurements from one wafer of SiC diodes, suggests that highly reliable low-voltage SiC rectifiers may be attainable despite the presence of elementary screw dislocations.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 512: Symposium F – Wide Bandgap Semiconductors for High Power, High Frequency , 1998 , 107
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Neudeck, P. G., J. Electron. Mater. 24 (4), 283–288 (1995).Google Scholar
2. Neudeck, P. G. and Powell, J. A., IEEE Electron Device Lett. 15 (2), 63–65 (1994).Google Scholar
3. Dudley, M., Wang, S., Huang, W., Carter, C. H. Jr., and Fazi, C., J. Phys. D 28 A63–A68 (1995).Google Scholar
4. Wang, S., Dudley, M., Carter, C. H. Jr., Tsvetkov, V. F., and Fazi, C. in Applications of Synchrotron Radiation Techniques to Materials Science, edited by Terminello, L., Shinn, N., Ice, G., D'Amico, K., and Perry, D. (Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 375, Pittsburgh, PA 1995), pp. 281–286.Google Scholar
5. Si, W., Dudley, M., Glass, R., Tsvetkov, V., and Carter, C. H. Jr., J. Electron. Mater. 26 (3), 128–133 (1997).Google Scholar
6. Si, W. and Dudley, M. in Silicon Carbide. III-Nitrides. and Related Materials, edited by Pensl, G., Morkoc, H., Monemar, B., and Janzen, E. (Materials Science Forum 264–268, Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland 1998), pp. 429–432.Google Scholar
7. Wang, S., Dudley, M., Carter, C. H. Jr., and Kong, H. S. in Diamond. SiC and Nitride Wide Bandgap Semiconductors, edited by Carter, C. H. Jr., Gildenblat, G., Nakamura, S., and Nemanich, R. J. (Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 339, Pittsburgh, PA 1994), pp. 735–740.Google Scholar
8. Powell, J. A., Larkin, D. J., Neudeck, P. G., Yang, J. W., and Pirouz, P. in Silicon Carbide and Related Materials, edited by Spencer, M. G., Devaty, R. P., Edmond, J. A., Kahn, M. A., Kaplan, R., and Rahman, M. (Institute of Physics Conference Series 137, Bristol, UK 1994), pp. 161–164.Google Scholar
9. Tsvetkov, V. F., Glass, R. C., Henshall, D., Asbury, D. A., and Carter, C. H. Jr., in Silicon Carbide, III-Nitrides. and Related Materials, edited by Pensl, G., Morkoc, H., Monemar, B., and Janzen, E. (Materials Science Forum 264–268, Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland 1998), pp. 3–8.Google Scholar
10. Neudeck, P. G., Huang, W., and Dudley, M. to appear in Power Semiconductor Materials and Devices, edited by Pearton, S. J., Shul, R. J., Wolfgang, E., Ren, F., and Tenconi, S. (Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 483, Warrandale, PA, 1998).Google Scholar
11. Sze, S. M., Physics of Semiconductor Devices, 2nd ed., Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1981, pp. 169–175.Google Scholar
12. Baliga, B. J., Modem Power Devices Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1987, pp. 314–318.Google Scholar
13. Ricketts, L. W., Bridges, J. E., and Miletta, J., EMP Radiation and Protective Techniques, Wiley, New York, 1976.Google Scholar
14. Ghose, R. N., EMP Environment and System Hardness Design, D. White Consultants, Gainesville, VA, 1984, pp. 4.1–4.31.Google Scholar
15. Wunsch, D. C. and Bell, R. R., IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. 15 (6), 244–259 (1968).Google Scholar
16. Zywietz, A., Karch, K., and Bechstedt, F., Physical Review B 54 (3), 1791–1798 (1996).Google Scholar
17. Kittel, C., Introduction to Solid State Physics, 6th ed., Wiley, New York, 1986, pp. 99–122.Google Scholar
18. Slack, G. A., J. Appl. Phys. 35 (12), 3460 (1964).Google Scholar
19. Neudeck, P. G. and Fazi, C., J. Appl. Phys. 80 (2), 1219–1225 (1996).Google Scholar
20. FluorinertTM, 3M Company, St. Paul, MN 55144.Google Scholar
21. Gradinaru, G., Madangarli, V. P., and Sudarshan, T. S., IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 41 (7), 1233–1238 (1994).Google Scholar
22. Neudeck, P. G., Larkin, D. J., Powell, J. A., Matus, L. G., and Salupo, C. S., Appl. Phys. Lett. 64 (11), 1386–1388 (1994).Google Scholar